Creative Thinking: What it Is, Why We Need It and How to Learn From It

Fisher’s space pen was developed for about $1 million USD from its own funds and not NASAs. As a result, the company patented the pen, cornering the market. A hesitant NASA agreed to eventually equip the Apollo astronauts with these pens. It is reported that the 400 pens NASA purchased from Fisher cost $6 USD per unit for the Apollo Project. The soviets had been using grease pencils. They purchased 100 pens and 1000 ink cartridges in February 1969 for the Soyuz space flights from the Fisher Pen Company (Garber, 2004). Both American and Soviet cosmonauts continue to use these pens and Fisher, who continues to market them as the pens that went to the Moon, has created a separate corporation called the Fisher Space Pen Company (http://www.spacepen.com) where you can purchase the pens from $25 to $800 USD (Fisher Spacepen Co., 2008).

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